veronica_p8, Yup, you can go ahead and let the flowers form if you don't care about using the onion bulb. In my experience, they become very bland and sort of mealy-ish once they bloom and they definitely aren't storable for long. It's very easy to collect and save seed from them to start plants for next year. Simply keep an eye on them after the flowers turn into small, dried pods - each small flower will turn into a tiny pod and you'll end up with hundreds of seeds. You have to catch them pretty quickly once they're dried out or they may end up on the ground before you know it. Depending on variety, most are jet black and will pretty much spill right into your hand with a good tip. Have some fun experimenting with it. What have you got to lose but a couple bulbs? :)

Is this what happened to me? (I found this web site while searching for help with my fading seedlings.) I swear I'm seriously considering never trying to start plants from seed again. Last year, I moved into a new house. And although it has some nice, existing landscaping, a year or so left uninhabited (with only the lawns being mowed) left the garden a bit to be desired. Soon after we moved in, I started a flat of some flower seeds. I think I ended up "cooking" them, as hinted at above. But I wasn't too bent out of shape, at the time, because we were overwhelmed with renovations and what not, and I just couldn't devote that much time or emotion to them. But, several weeks ago, I decided to start some seeds that I really wanted in my garden (annuals I'd purchased from a nursery, last year). Being new to the whole "growing from seed" thing, I dutifully followed the instructions on the commercial flat kit. I played the role of protective mother, as best I could. My tiny little darlings popped out sooner than expected (within just a few days of planting them). Still following the directions on the kit, I proppoed open the lid once the leaves sprouted. All seemed to be doing well. On nice days (15-23C), I'd put the flat out in a partially sunny area during the day, then bring them in at night. I'd gently mist the flat if it looked like it was drying out. Then, all of a sudden, the still tiny seedlings began to fade. One by one their stems would weaken, and I'd find them toppled over. Right now, after having had a full tray of what I thought were healthy seedlings, I'm left with maybe 10% still looking viable. But I'm fully expecting them to die off, too. It's really frustrating because I'd hoped to eventually build a small greenhouse and start all my plants myself. But with two spectacular failures, and seeing how much of my time goes into tending to the seedlings (even if they had survived), just paying the extra $1 for well-started plants from a nursery seems like a good deal to me now. Anyone else having this much trouble getting even one plant to grow from seed?????

For what it's worth, my records show that I usually WS marigolds in mid to late March, although one year I did them in mid-February. I say "for what it's worth" because I don't have much rhyme or reason to my WSing. I don't usually start till late January, even early February, and while I do WS my perennials first, after that, it's just a kind of looking in the seed box on any particular day and thinking, hmm, what do I feel like sowing? I do WS first things that are known to be good reseeders, so I will take that into account. But except for vegetables, which I do in late March to April, I don't usually intentionally hold off on things. I just sow what I feel like sowing that day. The great thing is that it still works for me. The funny thing is that in most areas of my life I tend to overthink things. Never really did that with WSing, and that's been a wonderful thing for me (both the actual WSing and the results, and the fact that it works without thinking too much, lol!) Good luck and have fun! :) Dee

Hi All, If you received "Lemon Drops" from me in your newbie seed pack, please be aware that these are Lemon Drop PEPPERS, not Tomatoes, as I thought they were, and might have put a tomato label on them so you'd know (joke's on me!) The donor tells me they are very prolific plants, and she got about 100 peppers from ONE plant Here's a little info: The lemon drop pepper, ají limon,[1] is a hot, citrus-like, lemon-flavored pepper which is a popular seasoning pepper in Peru, where it is known as kellu uchu. It is also known as 'hot lemon'. The bright yellow, crinkled, cone-shaped fruits are about 2.5 in long and 0.5 in wide, and mature from green to yellow about 100 days after transplanting (long season), they have fewer seeds than the average pepper, containing 15 on average. The plant is vine-like, typically reaching a height of about 3 ft. Like other C. baccatum species, these peppers were practically unknown in the West until the early 1990s, but are now gaining wide popularity. [2]